Political bills submitted to House for deliberation

Political bills submitted to House for deliberation

JAKARTA (JP): The head of a government team set up to
formulate three political laws, Ryaas Rasyid, said that draft
bills were submitted to the House of Representatives (DPR) for
consideration on Wednesday.

The draft laws on general elections, political parties and on
the function and composition of the DPR, the People's
Consultative Assembly (MPR) and regional legislative councils
(DPRD) have been screened by the State Secretariat and are now
ready for discussion, he said on Thursday.

Ryaas, who is also director general for regional autonomy and
general administration in the Ministry of Home Affairs, said the
latest revision of the draft law on elections included a clause
which would allow members of the Civil Servants Corps (Korpri) to
vote for political parties of their own choosing.

Korpri is part of the Big Golkar Family, a fact which so far
obliges its 4 million members to vote for the ruling political
group. The government continues to insist that Golkar is a
functional group and not a political party.

Ryaas added that as bureaucrats, members would still not be
allowed to join political parties.

"A government employee must obtain his superior's consent and
apply for non-paid leave or permanently resign from the corps if
he joins a political party," he explained after the opening of a
two-day meeting of the country's 27 provincial governors.

Ending speculation on what electoral system the government
would prefer, the draft law on general elections proposes a
combination of a district system, under which the electorate
would vote directly for politicians, and proportional
representation, under which votes would be cast for parties and
not people. House members will be selected on a proportional
basis.

The draft law on elections requires a political party to have
at least 14 provincial chapters nationwide or 1 million
registered members before it can contest an election.

The two requirements are expected to exclude many of the 80
political parties which have been set up in the country since May
this year.

The draft law on political parties states that a political
party must be established by at least 50 people and must not
differentiate its members according to their ethnicity, religion,
race or gender.

It also suggests limiting the amount of money that a political
party can receive from individuals and groups or institutions in
any single year.

"A political party can receive a maximum of Rp 5 million
(US$454.5) in financial support from any one private citizen in
any single year and a maximum of Rp 50 million from groups or
institutions over the same period," the draft reads.

The draft also reaffirms that neither members of the Civil
Servants Corps or the Armed Forces (ABRI) can stand for election
and that members of ABRI are not entitled to vote.

The draft law on the function and composition of the DPR, MPR
and the regional legislative councils suggests that the
chairmanship of the MPR and DPR should be separated.

The draft proposes an MPR with 700 seats, 550 of which would
go to members of the House (including 55 appointed Armed Forces
legislators). Eighty-one seats would be allocated to regional
representatives and the remaining 69 seats would go to members of
religious, racial and occupational groups.

Apparently in response to the widely held opinion that in the
past the House and the Assembly served only to "rubber stamp" the
government's legitimacy, the team has inserted a clause which
would ban members of the two institutions from simultaneously
holding positions in the executive branch of government.

Clause 45 in chapter VII states that a member of the House
cannot hold "a position at any level in the executive or judicial
branches of the government." Clause 44 rules forbids Assembly
members from holding positions such as governor, regent or the
head of a state body.

"Hopefully the discussion (of the laws) can be completed by
December," Ryaas said. That would give us just enough time to
prepare for the election next May. (imn)